Death penalty bill dies

May 16, 2013

By

Joseph Moore, Nebraska News Service

LINCOLN -- Senators supporting a bill to repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole failed to muster enough votes to overcome a filibuster Tuesday.
A vote to cease debate on LB543, introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, and bring it to a final vote failed with 28 in favor and and 20 opposed, five votes shy of the 33 needed.
The result means that the bill to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska is essentially dead.

Chambers vowed to come back next session with another repeal bill, as he has done each of the 37 years he has been in the Legislature.
â€śWhatever happens today, it will not be the end of this issue,â€ť he said.
Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, in a last minute bid to reach 33 votes, introduced an amendment to the bill that would have prevented the repeal from being retroactively applied.
Several senators had expressed concern in previous debate that the bill would repeal the sentences of the 11 inmates currently on death row in the state.

â€śI implore this body to keep this bill alive,â€ť Ashford said.
Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha said the filibuster would prevent this important issue from coming to a final vote.
â€śThereâ€™s enough votes on this floor to repeal the death penalty,â€ť he said.
Opponents of the repeal contested the claim that the bill would pass if brought to a vote.

Sen Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha said even though 26 senators voted against postponing the bill until the end of the session, essentially killing it, two of those votes came from senators who do not support the underlying bill.
The billâ€™s supporters maintained that the death penalty is not applied uniformly, and open to racial and socioeconomic bias.

â€śWhen does this happen and when doesnâ€™t it happen?â€ť Lathrop asked, referring to a death sentence.
Chambers read from a list of homicide cases in Nebraska in which he says prosecutors did not seek the death penalty despite their ability to do so.
â€śPractically all these cases Iâ€™m reading to you were white people,â€ť he said.

Senators opposed to repeal insisted that some crimes are too heinous not to impose death as a punishment, and that any problems in the system could be addressed through legislation.
Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial said he would introduce a bill next session that would only allow a death sentence in cases where there is incontrovertible DNA or video evidence. He said this would eliminate any social biases in the system.

Lautenbaugh said it doesnâ€™t make sense to compare homicide cases where the death penalty was sought with those where it was not because those decisions depend on the available evidence and witnesses.
â€śEvery case is different,â€ť he said.
He said the advancement of technology and forensic science make it less likely that an innocent person could be sentenced to death. â€śWe have less reason to doubt the fairness of the death penalty today.â€ť Â